11-year-old boy believes he was reincarnated and has vivid memory of 'past life' as Hollywood star
While most kids are busy thinking about snacks and toys, one 11-year-old was busy remembering his past life.
Yep, you heard me. Ryan Hammond, from Oklahoma, was just three years old when he first began spouting details about a life that his parents had no idea about.
For the following years, Ryan continued to share memories of what seemed to be another life - one that actually belonged to a Hollywood actor who died decades ago.
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In an interview conducted in 2015, Ryan claimed he had vivid memories of living in Hollywood in the 1940s and 1950s, one of which included getting punched by one of Marilyn Monroe's bodyguards.
Ryan, who was born in 2004, even spoke about going towards 'the light' in his past life.
He believes he previously lived as an actor named Marty Martyn; a movie extra who later became a successful agent in Hollywood.
Martyn lived a life of luxury in New York; he was married multiple times in his life and enjoyed vacations in Paris.
In 1964, when he was 61 years old, Martyn passed away from a brain hemorrhage.
Fast-forward to the noughties, and Ryan would beg for his mother to take him to Los Angeles to 'visit his other family', and would even wake up in the night calling 'action', as if he was on a movie set.
Curious about her son's claims, Ryan's mom got a book about Hollywood from the library and was stunned when her son was able to identify actor George Raft in a picture, claiming he 'did a picture' with the star.
"Hey Mama, that's George," Ryan told his mom, adding: "We did a picture together. And mama, that guy's me. I found me."
Ryan's claims drew so much attention that when he was six years old, a documentary crew introduced him to Marty's daughter.
Even the actor's own daughter said Ryan's claims about her father's life were accurate.
Child psychiatrist Dr Jim Tucker spoke about the possibility of reincarnation and admitted there could be some truth to Ryan's claims.
"The world just doesn't work as we think or assume it does," he said. "The cases I have examined don't come under a normal explanation of how we perceive the world."
After analysing Ryan's claims, Tucker determined 55 of them were accurate.
Though Ryan's earlier memories about Marty were vivid, the young boy's memories are said to have faded as he got older.
Emily Brown